Publication of articles written by ministers and civil servants in academic journals Contents

1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................................3
2. What is covered? .................................................................................................................................3
3. Non-exclusive licences .......................................................................................................................4
4. Warranties ..........................................................................................................................................4
5. Publicly funded research ....................................................................................................................5
6. Typographical arrangements .............................................................................................................5
7. Introduction

We aim to provide a fast and streamlined process to enable the publication of Crown copyright articles and presentations with the minimum of administration. The authors will, in most cases, be ministers or civil servants; and as officers or servants of the Crown any articles they create in the course of their duties will be subject to Crown copyright.¹

For ease of reference the term ‘article’ in this guidance means articles and presentations. All ministers and civil servants have delegated authority from the Keeper of Public Records at The National Archives (TNA) to authorise the publication of Crown copyright information in academic journals on the terms detailed in this guidance.

In the majority of cases the article in question would not have been previously published. Any subsequent re-use of previously published articles should be covered under the terms of the Open Government Licence (OGL). Government departments do not have delegated authority to agree to any licence terms that would prevent re-use by Crown bodies in accordance with the Re-use of Public Sector Information Regulations 2015.

2. What is covered?

This covers the instances where:

- a government department or agency wishes to submit an article for publication in a journal or similar publication
- a publisher asks an author to prepare an article for publication
- a minister or a civil servant gives a presentation at a conference or seminar and the conference organiser wishes to publish the text of the presentation in the conference proceedings
- a minister or civil servant is required to publish the output of publicly funded research as a condition of funding

It does not cover re-use of departmental logos and the Royal Arms.

¹ Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988, section 163(1) 3. Non-exclusive licences

The default licence for Crown copyright material is the non-transactional OGL. Under the terms of the OGL academic publishers are free to:

- publish, distribute and transmit the article
- adapt the article
- exploit the article commercially and non-commercially
- sub-license the article and authorise the inclusion of the article in collective licensing schemes such as the Copyright Licensing Agency

Her Majesty’s Government (HMG) has developed policies promoting the re-use of public sector information following the transposition of the amended European Union Directive on the re-use of public sector information into UK law. The Re-use of Public Sector Information Regulations 2015 prohibit exclusive arrangements in almost all instance, therefore all articles written by ministers and civil servants in the course of their duties must be licensed on a non-exclusive basis only.

4. Warranties

It is not HMG policy to offer warranties or indemnities to academic publishers for Crown copyright material. However, HMG recognises the value of academic publication where a minister or civil servant has made an informed choice to submit an article to an academic journal. Under delegated authority from the Keeper of Public Records, you are allowed to confirm you will not submit the article to another academic publisher upon acceptance of your article in a journal.

5. Publicly funded research

In certain circumstances, the output of publicly funded research must be made available via ‘Gold’ Open Access as a requirement of funding. Gold Open Access requires free, unrestricted, online access to peer-

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2 European Directive 2013/37/EU reviewed and published research, including the ability to re-use published research both commercially and non-commercially.

Any publicly funded research created by ministers or civil servants in the course of their duties will be subject to Crown copyright and should be made available under the terms of the OGL.

The OGL is an Open Definition conformant licence and is compatible with the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 and the Open Data Commons Attribution License.

6. Typographical arrangements

The copyright in the typographical arrangement of the final published version of the article will rest with the academic publisher.